


Why Don't We Collide

by icedsonder



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Basically this is what if Lance had left the team post s3 instead of Keith, Blade of Marmora Lance (Voltron), Canon Divergent, Keith is a snarky protag bc I said so, M/M, Minor Angst, Pining Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 16:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15999131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedsonder/pseuds/icedsonder
Summary: Keith knew he was rambling, but for the life of him, he couldn't stop.“I don’t know what it was about him that simultaneously made me want to punch him and also hang onto his every word. He just…” Keith could feel his cheeks burn, “He would just walk into a room and suddenly I could envision what sunshine on a warm day on Varadero was like.”The Blade stopped completely, looking down at Keith.Keith could very faintly hear footsteps in the distance. He didn’t know what the person under the mask look like, but he could feel the intensity of their gaze nonetheless.He swallowed, heart pounding, “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”.......In which Keith has has some chance encounters with a Blade of Marmoran fighter who reminds him of someone he knew.





	Why Don't We Collide

**Author's Note:**

> You bet your sweet ass this was inspired by [Dreamwips' Marmoran Lance art](https://dreamwips.tumblr.com/post/175996490860/some-marmoran-lances-for-an-au-im-writing-he)
> 
> (Title from Young the Giant's "Superposition")

Keith was annoyed. 

Fearful and perhaps attentive were probably the things he should have been feeling at the moment, but the Galra commander had spit on his face. With a hot wetness slowly sliding down his bruised cheek as he knelt cuffed to the ground, every other battle ready emotion took a backseat to this new fuming irritation. He had just taken a shower that day dammit. 

This was supposed to be a simple reconnaissance mission. Shiro, Keith and Pidge had infiltrated a Galra base that Lotor had stopped by not too long ago hoping to find some information about what he had been upto, and perhaps even the slightest clue of what his true motives were. 

Shiro and Pidge found a database in the main control room that logged the base’s shipment, visitors and security transmissions. As the two slowly uploaded the information to Allura, Coran and Hunk back on the castle ship, Keith had slipped away. He stealthily wandered the corridors, looking for a weapon the Blade of Marmora had tipped the team off about a few days prior. The Blade was sending a few members to aid in the extraction of the device, but Keith wasn’t too bent on waiting for that cult of martyrs to show up and risk exposure. He’d had a difficult relationship with the Blade following his trials there, not trusting their unorthodox methods and penchant for reckless endangerment. This was something the rest of the team found highly ironic, much to his annoyance. 

“Listen I’m impulsive, I know, but I don’t actually want to die out here,” he’d told Hunk and Allura’s amused faces, “I have...things to do. And things to live for.” The last part he’d murmured mostly to himself, hating the hollow ache in his chest as he had gazed at the empty paladin console in the castle’s control room. 

He was thinking of that instance, momentarily unguarded, when he was compromised.

“Listen paladin,” the offending commander had taken to pacing in front of Keith for the past half hour, patience wearing thin, “I don’t think you understand what I’m suggesting.” 

Keith shook his head like a wet dog, hoping the movement would rid him of the viscous spittle. “Well,” he said easily, “I wouldn’t mind a break down if you’d be so kind.” 

The commander, Ulx was his name, stilled, bat like ears twitching as he crouched down to the red paladin’s level. He levelled an icy glare at Keith, before turning his head slightly and listening intently to a sudden influx of information from his ear piece. Slowly, his expression changed, lips furling into an unnatural smile, sharp canines now in full view.

“I know about you red one,” he began much cooler than before, “You are by the far, the most rash and bold of your teammates.”

Keith glared back unblinkingly. “I don’t know about that. My foster care supervisor liked to tell me that I had a lot of spirit.” 

The commander chuckled, a low rumble that Keith could feel.

“And just how much spirit would you have left after we bring in your dear teammates, and dismember them one at a time, hm?”

Fuck.

Something must have changed in Keith’s demeanor, because Ulx looked even more smug than he did a minute ago. 

“Did you really think,” he drawled on, “We thought you came alone?”

Keith’s pulse had suddenly quickened. He knew he had to act fast, but his mind was blanking.

“You see paladin, your friends are looking for you now. Their poor, lost teammate. But thank goodness for that genius tracking software in your suits right?”

Keith remained silent. 

“Eventually they’ll make their way to this quadrant and when they do,” Ulx smiled cruelly, “We’ll be waiting.”

Keith seethed in anger. He’d put Shiro and Pidge in harm’s way because of his own impatience. He should really just burn Shiro’s mantra into the back of his eyelids so whenever he felt idiotically inclined, “patience yields focus” would remind him not to do anything absurdly stupid. With his helmet tossed to the side, he couldn’t even warn them of the trap they were walking into. He needed to buy more time, at least until the Blades made it.

“Please,” he said willing his voice to remain steady, “I’ll talk, I promise.”

“Oh I know you will boy,” Ulx said rising to his full height, “Because when I force you to watch your friend slowly tortured to death, you won’t have any of that so called spirit left to help you hold anything back.” 

Keith saw red. 

“YOU SON OF BITCH!” he struggled violently against his restraints, “DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH THE-AGH!”

Ulx took great pleasure in watching the paladin keel over in pain, slowly bringing his foot back from its point of contact on Keith’s ribs. 

Keith’s eyes watered in pain as he took in shallow breaths. Fuck, that homicidal furby could really land a kick. 

His head snapped to the side as fast footsteps could be heard echoing down the hallway.

Eyes wide, he yelled out half a warning before Ulx landed another blow to his side. There was a definite fracture of some sort because the pain Keith was in nearly muted all his other senses to nothing. He could vaguely hear the footsteps slow. 

“No,” he whimpered.

And then, oddly, there was knock. 

Keith could just barely see the sentries and other soldiers look at each other in confusion. The knock came again, but this time in an almost rhythmic pattern. At the sound of the pleasantry, Ulx readied his men. 

“On my count,” he inched for the door's controls, “One-

Ulx never finished his countdown because several things happened at once. Keith, staying true to his wild spirit, kicked backwards in one painful move knocking the galra soldier standing behind him to the ground. The door exploded open with such force that Ulx and nearly half the sentires surrounding him were blown to the opposite end of the room. Suddenly, dark masses entered the room with such speed Keith didn’t know exactly what he was looking at. 

As his eyes adjusted, he saw the faint purple light of the Blade members’ uniforms blur with movement as they quickly and steadily took down the remaining fighters. Keith quickly dodged to the side as a massive sentry leg whizzed past him, watching it hit the wall with an unreal velocity. He whipped his head back to the scene before him and found his eyes drawn to the most peculiar sight. 

While the majority of the Blade soldiers in the room were fighting hand to hand with Blade swords, standing as tall if not taller than their opponents, there, not more than 10 feet from Keith, was a figure much shorter than the rest using some sort of...staff?

Keith watched with fascination as the Blade used the long weapon to deflect near fatal shots from a sentry. In a move of near impossible speed, he (or she?) accelerated forward, running directly at the sentry before planting the staff in the ground, creating a minor shockwave of electricity, and using the momentum to launch themselves in the air. They forcefully propelled their foot into the robot, separating the head from the body in one clean move before landing gracefully crouched on the ground. 

Keith stood stunned, both confused at the stark difference in appearance and fighting tact that this mysterious Blade used, but also incredibly impressed. Then as if sensing Keith’s watching eyes, they whipped their masked head towards the red paladin. For an odd moment, the figure stilled, but before Keith could make anything of it, they started towards him. Once close, Keith irritably noticed that the Blade, while much shorter than their colleagues, was still an inch or two taller than him. 

“Unbelievable,” he muttered unconsciously. The Blade member cocked his head in the most familiar way before flipping Keith around.

“Hey! Watch it-”

They broke through his cuffs with their staff, before shoving Keith through the door. 

Keith whirled to face them. “Wait, are Shiro and Pidge okay?”

The Blade nodded firmly once. They then jerked their head down the hallway before jogging away from the raven haired pilot. 

“Right, weapon,” he said understanding.

Keith started after them but a sudden sharpness in his side keeled him over in pain. Oh yeah, he probably broke a rib or two. 

The Blade glanced back at Keith’s sudden outburst and quickly made their way back to the other boy’s side. 

“I uh,” Keith grimaced, “Think there’s something broken in here.”

The Blade stored their weapon onto their back as they crouched down, hands hovering over Keith’s side, before pressing softly to see where the injury was. 

“Not there, a little higher I think - SWEETMARYANDJOSEPHRIGHTTHEREFUCK!”

The Blade snatched their hands away, only to place them over where Keith assumed their mouth would be, shoulders shaking in...laughter??

Keith stared incredulously. “Are you...are you laughing at me right now?”

The Blade vigorously shook their head but the faint breathy noises coming from behind their mask said otherwise. 

Bastard.

“I honest to God, did not know you guys could laugh,” Keith said still confused as all hell, “And that’s coming from me.”

The Blade shrugged in a ‘well the more you know’ way before standing up. They held up a finger before darting back into the room the two of them had left. The sounds of battle had died down significantly, the Blade members probably having defeated the soldiers Ulx had assembled for the paladins. He shuddered suddenly, thinking back to the galra commander’s threat, grateful they came when they did. 

His mysteriously expressive companion emerged once more and ran back to where he lay. They took the side opposite to Keith’s injury, draping one of Keith’s arms around their shoulders and slowly rising to stand as support. Unfortunately, it seemed like both sides of Keith’s ribs sustained significant injury because as soon as he felt a tug upward, he also saw white. 

He let out a low groan as the Blade carefully placed him back down on the ground. 

“Look,” he wheezed out, “Just grab the weapon without me, I’ll just slow you down.”

The Blade shook their head. Keith narrowed his eyes. 

“What do you mean no? That’s our mission, you can’t just forfeit because I’m injured.”

They shook their head almost impatiently this time. 

“Look,” Keith said exasperatedly, “I’ll be fine, I can just make my way back to Shiro and Pidge, and then I’ll be put into a healing pod, and then I’ll be as good as new.” 

The Blade suddenly smacked their forehead as if realizing some obvious thing and reached back out for Keith.

“Woah, woah, woah what are you-HEY!”

And he was being carried.

“This is entirely unnecessary, put me down now and go finish what we arrived here to do.” Keith really hoped his cheeks weren’t as blazingly red as they were warm right now. 

The hooded figure shook their head and jerked it back to where they had been. Keith peered over their (broad) shoulder to see that other Blade members were now heading in the opposite direction, where they would have gone if Keith hadn’t been skeletally compromised. 

“Well at least they’re doing they’re jobs,” Keith said pointedly. 

The Blade jostled him in their arms.

“Hey!”

He heard breathy laughter, as they continued down the corridor. 

Keith took the time to very subtly appreciate his companion’s appearance. Sure, he didn’t actually know what they looked like, but the tight Maramoran suit accentuated a long, lean figure, leaving little to the imagination. Broad shoulders tapered to a narrow waist, while the arms holding him were strong, but not as bulking as the other Blade members. Keith hadn’t even noticed when his weary head started to rest gently under his companion’s chin.

Huh. 

The last thing Keith was expecting was the Blade to smell like was...spiced cinnamon? The coppery scent of blood or musky with sweat and adrenaline, not a fall candle. And the only other person who smelled like that...was gone.

Keith’s eyes stung. No. He wasn’t going down that rabbit hole of worry and pain. He needed a distraction. His eyes flicked upward to gaze at the masked face staring ahead. 

“Not to be rude, but you’re really small compared to the rest of the Marmorans.”

They shrugged their shoulders.

“Are you...even Galra?”

The arms holding him stiffened almost imperceptibly and they made no movement to answer the question. 

“I’ll take that as a no then,” his eyes caught onto the staff hanging on the Blade’s back, “That explains why you’re using a staff and not a Blade sword I guess.”

No response. 

“Not that it’s lesser or something! I actually really like the staff. Very practical in my opinion.”

Silence. 

“I’m part Galra, um but I’m sure you knew that. I was at the Blade headquarters not too long ago and I found out. Not that my trials were of much significance to you guys, but my lion almost destroyed the base so...yeah.” Keith finished awkwardly. 

The Blade member nodded in acknowledgement. Keith didn’t know why he was trying so hard to make conversation with this stranger or why that simple gesture gave him immense satisfaction, but it did. 

“It’s weird that I’m the one talking the most right now,” Keith mused aloud, “Maybe I’m out of it? I don’t know, but usually I just listen while Lance rambles on about nothing and everything for hours.”

Keith stiffened. Shit. His poor impulse control opened the floodgates of emotion he’d kept tightly under wraps, but he started so he might as well continue right? 

“Oh, so you probably don't know but Lance is-was-the paladin of the Blue Lion, and Red Lion for a bit. He’s the biggest pain in the ass, but...in a way only best friends can be, you know?”

The Blade’s pace had considerably slowed. 

“I was pretty peeved about this weird rivalry thing he made up when we first started to work with Voltron, but it was actually kinda fun. Don’t get me wrong, I hated the stupidity of it in the beginning but it became more of a friendly competition kinda thing?”

Keith knew he was rambling, but for the life of him, he couldn't stop. 

“I don’t know what it was about him that simultaneously made me want to punch him and also hang onto his every word. He just…” Keith could feel his cheeks burn, “He would just walk into a room and suddenly I could envision what sunshine on a warm day on Varadero was like.”

The Blade stopped completely, looking down at Keith.

Keith could very faintly hear footsteps in the distance. He didn’t know what the person under the mask look like, but he could feel the intensity of their gaze nonetheless. 

He swallowed, heart pounding, “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

His companion was so still. Keith stared back wide eyed, and opened his mouth to say something, anything-

“Keith!”

Both Keith and the Blade jerked their heads towards Shiro and Pidge’s approaching figures. 

Shiro’s face was etched with concern, as he jogged up to them. 

“Hey what happened?”

“Commander Ulx kicked the shit out of me so I think I have some broken ribs.” Keith replied. He looked to Pidge, who had also worryingly furrowed her brow, “Did you manage to send all the info?”

She met his gaze and grinned. “What do you take me for, an amateur?” and then “What about the weapon Kolivan told us to find?”

“The other Blades are on it, I was uh, compromised.” Keith grimaced. 

Shiro rolled his eyes. “I see now that reiterating the importance of patience seems to be ineffective with you. I should just smack you upside the head while I’m at it.”

“Honestly, please do.” 

Keith could feel the Blade shake with laughter, drawing both Shiro and Pidge’s confused stares. 

“Well,” Shiro said now addressing the silent figure still holding Keith, “The Black Lion is docked by the exit down the hall, so let’s get going.” He and Pidge turned back the way they came, with Keith and the Blade following closely. 

They carried Keith up Black’s ramp and secured him gently in the cockpit. Keith winced in pain as he sat, drawing their worryingly fluttering hands around his torso. 

“No it’s okay,” Keith said to them, “I’ll be fine soon.”

The Blade nodded and made a move to stand. Some demonic energy then possessed Keith to shoot his arm out and grab the Blade by the wrist. They looked down at the contact and then back at Keith.

“I uh,” his mouth was dry, “I just wanted to say thank you. For carrying me, even if that was unnecessary-”

The Blade snorted.

“-and listening to my, uh, rambling I guess.” 

Keith watched as they stilled for a moment, simply gazing back at Keith through the violet mask openings. Then, they lifted a hand to softly rest gloved fingertips on Keith’s bruised cheek.

Keith stopped breathing. 

And suddenly, it was gone. They stood abruptly, nodded at Keith, then Shiro and Pidge as they boarded the ship, and descended back out to the base. 

As Black’s maw closed, he watched the Blade’s retreating figure, wondering if he had imagined that feathery touch so reminiscent of someone he’d lost.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this has the potential to have more parts, but like...only if you guys want em.
> 
> So let me know if you'd be down for a continuation of this, bc it was super fun to write!
> 
> And feel free to talk to me about this on [tumblr](http://astroakira.tumblr.com/) ;)


End file.
